The street food scene in London has exploded in the last year bringing accessible quality food to the masses. Two of the bigger street food events that we follow are Feast and Street Feast, each setting up temporarily residences wherever
space allows. It was the 1st
birthday bash for Feast over the last weekend with two of our favourite street
food vendors Bao London and Bob’s lobster taking part (both previously covered on the blog). That was all the reason we
needed to book a trip down to the Big Smoke.
The event was held in the Quadrangle
car park of Guys Hospital by London Bridge.
An odd location but a good sized car park for the vendors with covered
sitting and garden areas. The weather
forecast didn’t bode well for the Friday that we were attending and the rain
progressively dropped harder and harder as the night wore on. However this didn’t dampen ours or anyone else’s
spirits it seems with most Feasters braving the rain to purchase food before
diving back under the covered areas to consume and repeat.
One of the appealing aspects of
the event was the lineup that was assembled, including Bao (fresh off their
Young British Foodies Street Food 2013 award) and Bob’s lobster mentioned
earlier other vendors included Flat Iron, Anna Maes, Check On, Bread Street Kitchen,
Big Apple Hot Dogs, Patty and Bun, The Wright Brothers, Cinnamon Kitchen, Pizza
Pilgrims, Albion, Little Rice Ball, Jose Pizarro, Clockjack Oven, Waffle On,
Caravan, Paesan, Wiggies and Tamales amongst others.
Arriving there just after six
when it opened for the evening we decided to go straight for Bao after a short
stroll around the square. It would prove
to be an inspired decision as the queues from then on for the whole night were ridiculous;
consistently ten deep even in the pouring rain.
The menu for Bao consisted of two items, the classic pork belly gua Bao
and the ‘Heart Attack’ chicken Bao which was soya milk chicken fried on
a deep fried bun. We ordered one of each
and being a Bao virgin, Mrs Nom was instantly converted with the pork belly
Bao. It gets better each time; I could
eat a bucket of the braised pork belly.
The ‘Heart Attach’ Bao was also a delight, the deep fried bun reminded
of a Chinese dim sum classic, the deep fried custard buns. The chicken was still moist inside and the
hot sauce finished it off nicely. At
£3.50 each I can’t think of a better snack for the same price.
We moved onto to Anna Maes and
decided on the Piggy Smalls, mac n cheese topped with pulled pork, bbq sauce
and pickled red onions, served with a mini bottle of tobacco sauce. Billed as legendary mac n cheese it was good
with quality cheese coating the macaroni.
Catching my eye next to Anna Maes
was Bread Street Kitchen with its fried tamarind spice chicken wings flying out
by the plate. I couldn’t resist and
ordered a portion and they were very tasty with the tamarind embedding into the
skin and meat. Next to Bao was revered
chef Jose Pizarro and his offering of Iberica jamon with tomato bread. The slivers of jamon oozed quality and the
tomato topped bread was refreshing.
Steering clear of burgers as we’ve
had too many lately with the latest being the ramen burger at Solita, Manchester
the night before, there was a Patty and Bun offering which seemed quite
tempting and pulled pork sliders at Wiggies.
To compensate I ordered a portion of pork crackling with rhubarb relish
from Wiggies, they were certainly tough and crackly with glorious pork fat. We noticed a stall selling unique rice balls
and chose one of each, marinated salmon and wakame, and Japanese plum and miso
pickled cucumber. Whilst different we
found them to be quite bland.
Moving on to desserts we had our
eyes on a black forest waffle from Waffle On and the Eggs n Soldiers from Check
On. The black forest waffle came with
poached cherries and a rich chocolate sauce that was very additive. The Eggs n Soldiers were cute served in
hallowed out egg shells with vanilla crème brulee and mango jelly with a
shortbread finger. Always a sucker for crème
brulee they too were very additive and not too sweet. Still feeling peckish we ordered a tried and
trusted lobster roll from Bob’s lobster, this was packed with huge amounts of
lobster meat and was as succulent as we had remembered it to be from
before. We headed off to nearby Hutong
in the Shard after this as some rest bite from the rain.
We returned the next day in
better weather for a quick snack before heading home and sneaked in another
pork belly Bao. We took the opportunity
to introduce ourselves as the guys who Bao often retweet and were surprised
that they remembered us as the couple who turned up last month at an event to
find them shutting up shop early after selling out. Next time we will definitely try and make it
to the Bao Bar in Netil market which opens on Saturdays. The tongue and crackling congee only
available at the Bao Bar on the sit down menu seems particularly appealing.
We couldn’t look past the lobster
mac n cheese from Bob’s again to fulfil our lobster cravings which are hard to
satisfy in the North West. The mac n
cheese was filled with large chunks of lobster meat and swimming in a glorious lobster
bisque, if only Bob’s was based in the North West we’d be there every
week. We had a nice chat to Rob, the
owner who we had previously met at Borough Market, and it was staggering to
find out that they were getting through a couple of hundred kilograms of
lobster a day which meant some serious prep work.
Feeling quite full after the
mammoth lobster mac n cheese we were swayed by a sample of chicken from
Clockjack Oven and decided to buy a portion for the train. This was after a day full of eating so we didn’t
manage to get through much in this brief visit.
We chose two roasted thighs which came with a ranch sauce and homemade
slaw. With our rotisserie chicken all
bagged up (it turned into a tasty supper at home instead) we made our way to
Euston to return home and plotted our trip to the next Feast.
Check out the Feast website for details of future events
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